1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle for the transportation and handling of various materials or operating units in rooms, which require a high mobility and wide maneuverability in narrow spaces and/or in the presence of obstacles, and impediments. In particular, these rooms are the insides of sheds, warehouses, deposits, airports, markets, deposit and/or maneuver areas for heavy means.
As is known, in industrial plants, warehouses, and deposits, it is necessary to handle various materials, that are often heavy and cumbersome due to their form and size. Often these materials must be handled in very narrow spaces or in the presence of obstacles and utilizing especially equipped self-propelled vehicles, which have to follow tortuous and obliged runs. For instance, in warehouses or deposits, it is necessary to arrange the various goods according to a pre-fixed order and to collect these goods when needed, by performing very precise maneuvers.
Instead, in other cases, it is necessary to transport operating units from one place to another place and to position them suitably and exactly, so then these units can perform their desired function.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For instance, it is known that in airports it is necessary to position near the departing aircraft an operating unit comprising the generator to start the engines. This operation requires a careful positioning maneuver which must take in due account the presence of the wings and the tail of the aircraft.
As is also known, in plants of the metallurgical, iron-metallurgical types, in foundries, it is necessary to handle various materials, often heavy and cumbersome due to the form and size, usually in very narrow spaces and utilizing suitably equipped self-propelling vehicles.
For instance, the plants for the electrolytic production of aluminum require the periodic replacement of anodes because of their wearing during the working in electrolysis cells. Both the worn anodes and the new ones are prepared by groups positioned on pallets, which are thereafter transported and handled by means of a particular type of self-propelling vehicle that can move in the inside of the plant, between the rows of electrolytic cells.
The present types of self-propelling vehicles are usually constituted by a tractor with two driving and steering wheels and by a trailer; the tractor is usually connected to the trailer through a vertical axis joint, suitable to allow the steering of the tractor with respect to the trailer according to an angle, relatively to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, which is always very limited because of the presence of the front part of the trailer, which is very approached to the tractor.